Three on a Match (1932)

Buy This Item Three on a Match (1932) by MGM (Warner)  Available from Amazon  $19.98  on 8-9-2008     If three people light cigarettes from the same match, one will die soon, or at least that's how the old superstition had it. Three childhood friends (Joan Blondell, Bette Davis, Ann Dvorak) laugh it off as they all light up from the same match. Vivian (Dvorak) is married to a wealthy attorney (played by Warren William, in a sympathetic role for once). Bored and stifled in her life, she decides on a walk on the wild side; absconding with their 4-year-old son, she falls in with gangsters and takes a nosedive. Soon she's living the life of a slattern, hooked on cocaine and bootleg liquor, neglecting her son like he's so much excess baggage. Meanwhile her husband and friends are frantic to get the little boy back and set things right again. In this movie's 64-minute running time, director Mervyn LeRoy managed to include Depression-era social commentary, drugs, crime, sex, violence, and some surprisingly well-fleshed-out characterizations. The young Bette Davis is beautiful (even playing one scene in her lingerie), and Blondell and Dvorak are both great in their roles. Even more remarkable, though, is the number of future stars that can be spotted in <I>Three on a Match</I>: Lyle Talbot, a young Anne Shirley, Edward Arnold, and Humphrey Bogart in a great role as a menacing hood. This is entertaining fare that's still potent today in all its pre-censorship seediness. <I>--Jerry Renshaw</I> Reader Reviews Three on a match is truly a great movie. With stars like Bette Davis, Joan Blondell, Ann Dvorak and Humphrey Bogart what else would you have. The story is of three school girls and what path their lives take. The one who has it all is the most unfulfilled of the three. She gets involved with gangsters and ends up making a choice between her own life and the well being of her son. Don't miss this one!

Three on a Match (1932) Available from Amazon Price: $19.98 Updated on 8-9-2008.

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